The Next Chapter of the Legendary “Star Trek” TV Franchise Will Premiere on the CBS Television Network, Then Move to CBS All Access Digital Subscription Service

Alex Kurtzman, Co-Writer and Producer of the Blockbuster Films

“Star Trek” and “Star Trek Into Darkness,” to Executive Produce

CBS Studios International to Distribute the Series Globally

For Television and Multiple Platforms

STUDIO CITY, CALIF. AND NEW YORK, N.Y. – Nov. 2, 2015 – CBS Television Studios announced today it will launch a totally new “Star Trek” television series in January 2017. The new series will blast off with a special preview broadcast on the CBS Television Network. The premiere episode and all subsequent first-run episodes will then be available exclusively in the United States on CBS All Access, the Network’s digital subscription video on demand and live streaming service.

The next chapter of the “Star Trek” franchise will also be distributed concurrently for television and multiple platforms around the world by CBS Studios International.

The new program will be the first original series developed specifically for U.S. audiences for CBS All Access, a cross-platform streaming service that brings viewers thousands of episodes from CBS’s current and past seasons on demand, plus the ability to stream their local CBS Television station live for $5.99 per month. CBS All Access already offers every episode of all previous “Star Trek” television series.

The brand-new “Star Trek” will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.

Alex Kurtzman will serve as executive producer for the new “Star Trek” TV series. Kurtzman co-wrote and produced the blockbuster films “Star Trek” (2009) with Roberto Orci, and “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013) with Orci and Damon Lindelof. Both films were produced and directed by J.J. Abrams.

The new series will be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout. Kurtzman and Heather Kadin will serve as executive producers. Kurtzman is also an executive producer for the hit CBS television series SCORPION and LIMITLESS, along with Kadin and Orci, and for HAWAII FIVE-0 with Orci.

“Star Trek,” which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016, is one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time. The original “Star Trek” spawned a dozen feature films and five successful television series. Almost half a century later, the “Star Trek” television series are licensed on a variety of different platforms in more than 190 countries, and the franchise still generates more than a billion social media impressions every month.

Born from the mind of Gene Roddenberry, the original “Star Trek” series debuted on Sept. 8, 1966 and aired for three seasons – a short run that belied the influence it would have for generations. The series also broke new ground in storytelling and cultural mores, providing a progressive look at topics including race relations, global politics and the environment.

“There is no better time to give ‘Star Trek’ fans a new series than on the heels of the original show’s 50th anniversary celebration,” said David Stapf, President, CBS Television Studios. “Everyone here has great respect for this storied franchise, and we’re excited to launch its next television chapter in the creative mind and skilled hands of Alex Kurtzman, someone who knows this world and its audience intimately.”

“This new series will premiere to the national CBS audience, then boldly go where no first-run ‘Star Trek’ series has gone before – directly to its millions of fans through CBS All Access,” said Marc DeBevoise, Executive Vice President/General Manager – CBS Digital Media. “We’ve experienced terrific growth for CBS All Access, expanding the service across affiliates and devices in a very short time. We now have an incredible opportunity to accelerate this growth with the iconic ‘Star Trek,’ and its devoted and passionate fan base, as our first original series.”

“Every day, an episode of the ‘Star Trek’ franchise is seen in almost every country in the world,” said Armando Nuñez, President and CEO, CBS Global Distribution Group. “We can’t wait to introduce ‘Star Trek’s’ next voyage on television to its vast global fan base.”

CBS All Access offers its customers more than 7,500 episodes from the current television season, previous seasons and classic shows on demand nationwide, as well as the ability to stream local CBS stations live in more than 110 markets. Subscribers can use the service online and across devices via CBS.com, the CBS App for iOS, Android and Windows 10, as well as on connected devices such as Apple TV, Android TV, Chromecast, Roku players and Roku TV, with more connected devices to come.

The new television series is not related to the upcoming feature film “Star Trek Beyond,” which is scheduled to be distributed by Paramount Pictures in summer 2016

No, nothing I've heard has made me want to pay for this series yet, especially after reading that it'll be available worldwide on Netflix (of which I'm a subscriber) but in America, I'd have to pony up for CBS All Access.

I was going to say I've seen better fan fic designed ships on YouTube than that clunky looking turd. CBS better hit a home run with this show.

I didn't mean the ship design, I meant the production design. It just has a very CBS style to it, from the soft color palette to the audio cues. Which is okay if you're doing episode 306 of procedural drama #3248, but not so good if it's Star Trek.

I didn't mean the ship design, I meant the production design. It just has a very CBS style to it, from the soft color palette to the audio cues. Which is okay if you're doing episode 306 of procedural drama #3248, but not so good if it's Star Trek.

I gotcha, and you're absolutely correct there as well. Hopefully that isn't the final look, just some mash up they had their guys in effects throw together at the last second for SDCC.

Also the CG looks pretty bad, it makes me nervous that CBS doesn't take digital seriously, and is trying to do this on the cheap.

They're most definitely trying to do it cheaply. 13 episodes of a well produced Star Trek series would cost near $100 million dollars per season, which is Game Thrones money.

TNG went off the air in 1994 because it cost $4 million an episode to produce. VFX aren't any less expensive today and as I calculated earlier, the CBS All Access app is going to need millions of subscribers every month to even pay for this new series, unless they do the shitty thing and throw advertising into each viewing.

'Discovery' to focus on a female lieutenant commander, set in pre-Kirk era

The showrunner behind the new Star Trek TV series just revealed a lot of fresh information about the new series – including that the upcoming series will focus on a female lead character, likely played by a diverse actress, who will be a lieutenant commander on a starship.

At the Television Critics Association’s press tour in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, writer-producer Bryan Fuller took questions from critics. Star Trek is being rebooted for the small screen next January as Star Trek: Discovery, which will launch on CBS and then exclusively switch to the network’s streaming service CBS Access. A Trek series previously had a female lead, Voyager, which ran from 1995 to 2001 and starred Kate Mulgrew.

Live updates:

– In a teaser video, Fuller is quoted saying, “We’re telling a Star Trek novel over 13 episodes,” which hints at a very serialized storyline instead of an episodic one.

– Fuller on the premise: “There’s an incident and and event in Star Trek history, that’s been talked about but never been explored. To do this series, we’re telling a much more serialized story, to dig deep into a very tantalizing [storyline. And we have a character who’s on a journey, and in order to understand something that is alien she first has to understand herself.” The event is somehing that was referneced in the original series, but not the Romulan War (“close,” he says), or Section 31 (but that could play a role), or Kirk wrestling with the Kobayashi Maru test. It’s only been referenced, never seen, he said.

– On casting a diverse cast: “Star Trek started with a wonderful expression of diversity in its cast … our lead of the show is going to be subject of that same level, of who’s the best actor and also what can we say about diversity on the show. We haven’t cast her yet, so we don’t know what level of diversity she will be, but that’s forefront in our minds. We’ll probably have a few more aliens than you typically have on the show. We wanted to paint a picture of Starfleet where we’re going to have new exciting aliens and also new imagining of existing aliens.” Fuller noted some of the changes might upset hardcore fans used to seeing things a certain way. “We’re producing the show in 2016. We have to update the style of the effects, the style of the sets, the style of the makeup.”

– Fuller says he spoke Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, while thinking about how to cast this role. “It was interesting to send her outlines and start talking about the character and get her perspective on what it’s like for a woman in the sciences now when we still have a lot of issues with women and race and how that’s going to be 250 years in the future when the world gets its s–t together and equality is a thing that’s more accepted.”

– The star won’t be the captain but rather be a lieutenant commander, “with caveats,” he said. “We’ve seen six series from the captain’s point of view, to see a character from a different perspective on the starship, one who has a diff dynamic relationships with a captain with subordinates, it gave us richer context.”

– Gay characters? “Absolutely we’re having a gay character,” Fuller said. He noted that as a gay man working on Voyager he had a file full of hate mail when there was a rumor that a character on his show was going to be gay. So he was determined if he ever did his own Star Trek show that he would have a gay character. “We’ve come a long way since then. I feel like actually gay rights have come a lot further in that time that race issues and women’s issues.”

– Somebody asks if there will be robots. Fuller says, “Yes.”

– Star Trek: Discovery to be set in the “Prime universe” (so set in the original shows’ timeline, not the J.J. Abrams reboot timeline) about 10 years before Captain Kirk’s five-year mission. “We can redefine the visual style,” he said. “We get to play with all of the iconography of those ships and that universe. Since we are doing this series in 2016 and all of the other series have been produced [at a time that] isn’t as sophisticated as we are now with what we can do production-wise, we’re going to be reestablishing an entire look for the series — not only for the series, but for what we wanted to accomplish with Star Trek beyond this series.”

– On including familiar characters from the original series: “There’s so much about the history that once we get through this first season and establish our own Star Trek universe with the crew that going to be reimagining a lot of Star Trek elements, we’ll be looking in the second season to open up to more familiar characters and how they can feed into the [show]. First and foremost, I think we really want to convince you and establish the greatness of the [new] characters that are going to be introduced.”

– But he’s tempted to include the character of Amanda Grayson (Spock’s human mom). “That character could factor in, but there’s much to be told about that.”

– On Star Trek vs. Star Wars: “Star Trek is us and where we’re going,” he said. “That sense of hope is something that can’t be undervalued, particularly where we are today.”.

– On how much Star Trek will push the content envelope since it won’t be constrained by broadcast standards. “Well there’s a reason we call it S.T.D.,” he said, mocking the show’s initials. “We’re going to have a broader spectrum to explore those issues but it’s still Star Trek. It will probably be slightly more graphic content. We discuss language every day. Is it appropriate for somebody to see a bridge blow up and say ‘Oh sh–t.’ I imagine we’re going to shoot scenes a couple of ways and see what feels more authentic in the editing room.”

– How close will the Discovery look like the Enterprise: “Saucer section, the cells and the design that we leaked early on has changed considerably. But it’s still very much inspired by those [Ralph McQuarrie] illustrations.”

– Marc DeBevoise, president and COO of CBS Interactive points out that he expects Star Trek: Discovery to get about 15 million viewers for its series premiere on CBS. He noted that Star Trek TV shows tend to average 2-to-5 million viewers for their first two years as reruns on Netflix. “We think this is a pretty good bet for us to make to grow our subscriber base next year,” he said.

– One reporter noted All Access shows will have commercials for new programming, so “Why do I have to pay you $6?” he asked. In other words: Why pay a premium for content that has advertisements? “The value is the depth and breath of the service that you can’t get anywhere else,” DeBevoise says. Another critic accused them of asking people to effectively “pay for CBS twice.” DeBevoise countered: “This original content is not on CBS, this is extra value.”

Earlier today, CBS was hammered by critics during its executive session for having six new fall shows starring white male actors. But Fuller’s idea to seek out a diverse cast isn’t a reaction to the recent surge of CBS diversity criticism. The former Hannibal showrunner first enthused about the idea of a black female captain in a hypothetical Star Trek series back in 2013. ”I want Angela Bassett to be the captain, that’s who I would love to have,” he said. “Captain Angela Bassett and First Officer Rosario Dawson. I would love to do that version of the show and that’s in the future to be told.”